How Do We Store Natural Gas?

We extract natural gas from the natural gas fields and transport it via pipeline to where it is needed. Natural gas in a gaseous state can take up a lot of room. Therefore, we cool it to a temperature that puts it into a liquid state. Old aquifers are designed to hold liquid and are a great underground option for storing liquid natural gas. Natural gas is too flammable to store above ground in tanks where it can be exposed to heat, so underground options are preferable.

Natural gas can also be stored in old salt mines or old gas reservoirs. Gas reservoirs are underground and are composed of porous rock. This rock held natural gas at one time and makes a well-suited location for storing natural gas. We usually store natural gas in gas reservoirs that we expect to use within about a year’s time. It can be time consuming to extract the gas that we need from gas reservoirs, so other methods are used for gas demands that are unexpected.

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